Wednesday, August 6, 2014

More stormwater drainage problems

As we were finalizing our story, "The Waterfall No One Wanted," which appears in this week's edition, we were told of another person along Popes Valley Drive who also was concerned about a faulty drainage system.

In the 1000 block, we met up with homeowner Richard Stambaugh, who walked us up and down the sidewalk to show us why he's called the city several times. After a rainfall the night before, water was still running in the gutter. It also was running under the gutter, as this photo shows. Water has eroded a trench beneath the gutter some 21 inches deep.

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Pam Zubeck

Richard Stambaugh measures the void below the gutter in his street. The tape measure goes down 21 inches. You can hear water rushing down the trench. You can see cracks in the asphalt, suggesting a void exists below that as well.

During heavy cloudbursts, water bubbles up from the curb and sidewalk next to his mailbox. This next photo, shot by Stambaugh during a recent rain, demonstrates that there's a crevice below, apparently.

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Richard Stambaugh

Water gushes around Stambaugh's mailbox from beneath the gutter, sidewalk and street.

Rain water has undermined his driveway, and some of the neighbors wonder if the street will simply cave in some day.

While homes built east of the 900 block were all built in 1985, all the homes farther west have been built since that time, but the city never installed another storm drain. The drain, down the street from his home, is overwhelmed in heavy rains, he reports.

"I've been looking into this for over a year," he says.

Stambaugh says he'll vote in favor of creating a regional Pikes Peak Regional Drainage Authority, so that his and other problems can get fixed. Meantime, he'll keep calling the city. "Three different people in the city have told me the squeaky wheel gets the grease," he says. He adds that despite calling the city recently, an inspector has never shown up.